The Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Shri Anurag Thakur held the Pre-Budget Consultation with the representatives of various Trade Unions and Labour Organisations here today in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2019-20.

During the course of meeting, representatives of Trade Unions and Labour Organisations shared their views and suggestions regarding labour and employment issues. Discussions were held on providing social security to labour besides skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of existing labour force. Quality of job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers were also discussed in detail besides the issue of rehabilitation of workers who have lost their jobs.

Along with the Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, the meeting was attended by Shri Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Shri Girish Chandra Murmu, Expenditure Secretary; Shri Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT; Shri P.K. Das, Chairman, CBIC; Dr K.V. Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser; Smt. Anuradha Prashad, Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment; Shri H. Srinivas, DG, V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and other senior officials of Ministry of Finance.

Experts and representatives from various Trade Unions and Labour Organisations gave suggestions related to alignment of skill development with aspirations of rural youth with focus on agriculture; need for strict enforcement of Minimum Wages Act; introduction of comprehensive unemployment insurance scheme; revision of ITIs’ syllabus for enhancing employability; provision of social security for contract workers; giving boost to capital intensive industry; conversion of casual/contractual workers to formalised employment; fixation of minimum wages on the recommendation of 15^th Indian Labour Conference; increase in allocations on social sector and basic essential services like health, education and food security; stopping disinvestment and strategic sale of public sector units; extension of MGNREGA to remaining all rural areas and introducing it in urban areas besides increasing number of workdays under the scheme to 200 days and creation of National Fund for Unorganised Workers to provide social security among others.

Participants from various labour organisations included Shri B. Surendran, Organisational Secretary, Bhartiya Mzdoor Sangh; Shri G. Sanjeeva Reddy, president, INTUC; Ms Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary, AITUC; Shri Mukesh Galav, Secretary, Hind Mazdoor Sabha; Ms Dagmar Walter, Director, ILO; Shri Manish Kumar, MD, National Skill Development Corporation; Shri Animesh Saxena, president, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises; Ms Vidhya Soundrarajan, Assistant Professor, IIM, Bangalore; Shri M. Sanmugam, General Secretary, Labour Progressive Federation; Shri Sankar Shah, General Secretary, AIUTUC; Shri Rajiv Dimri, General Secretary, All Indian Central Council of Trade Union; Ms Manali Shah, National Secretary, SEWA; Shri Soumitra Bhattacharya, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Skill Development & Livelihood; Shri K.V. Sekhar Raju, National president, Federation of Association of Small Industries of India; Shri  Swadesh Dev Roye, National Secretary, Centre for Indian Trade Union; Shri Arun Chawla, Executive Director, All India Organisation of Employers among others.

Minimum wages enforcement and expanded social security proposed to protect workers and formalise precarious employment. Pre-Budget consultation with trade unions and labour organisations proposed stronger enforcement of the Minimum Wages Act, extension of social security to unorganised and contract workers, a comprehensive unemployment insurance scheme, conversion of casual/contractual roles into formal employment, and creation of a National Fund for Unorganised Workers; further recommendations covered skill-development alignment, ITI syllabus revision, expansion of MGNREGA coverage and workdays, increased social-sector allocations, and opposition to public sector disinvestment.